Against all odds, troubled Pakistan aim for final
Can Pakistan defeat Australia in T20 world cup semi final
Barred from playing cricket in their own country, constantly embroiled in rows and disciplinary problems, troubled Pakistan have somehow managed to reach the semi-finals of the Twenty20 World Cup.
Shahid Afridi's team even lost the first two of their three matches in the Super Eight stage but still made it into the last four thanks to victory over South Africa on Monday and other results going their way.
Now Pakistan face favourites Australia on Friday with a place in the final up for grabs and an opportunity to defend the title they won last year in England.
The chance of glory comes just weeks after the end of a woeful tour of Australia where the team lost all three tests and five one day internationals.
The Pakistan Cricket Board banned former skipper Younis Khan and Muhammad Yousuf indefinitely and imposed 12-month suspensions and fines on Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved.
Of the current Twenty20 team, skipper Afridi and brothers Kamran and Umar Akmal were all fined.
It is the kind of chaotic situation that would undermine most teams' confidence but Afridi, nicknamed 'Boom Boom' after scoring the fastest one day century in 1996, said they were taking it all in their stride.
Success would bring cheer to the cricket-mad Pakistani population who have been unable to watch their team on home soil since the visiting Sri Lanka team bus was attacked by armed gunmen in Lahore last March.
Three months later, Pakistan won the Twenty20 World Cup in England.
England's cricketers were on fire in yesterday’s game against New Zealand. They had the support of every English cricket fan bundled up with the entire nation of Pakistan. Every child, man and women in Pakistan were glued to their TV cheering for England to win. With the absence of Kevin Pietersen, it seemed a tough task but England delivered a comprehensive win and with it sent New Zealand packing and Pakistan moves on to the semi final.
To keep it short and interesting; England won and in conclusion, New Zealand and South Africa are granted permission to go back to their normal lives.
England has done double to Pakistan; first they defeated Pakistan to kill the defending champion’s hopes to repeat the act again and then by giving Pakistan a lifeline by defeating New Zealand. As ever it is very hard to right off the men in green; their performance against South Africa was nothing short of fairytale. This is the second world cup in a row where Pakistan eliminated South Africa.
Now that Pakistan is moving to the semi final, the streets in Lahore and Karachi were crowded with fans who were holding the English flags along with the flags of Pakistan. This is what happened in 1992 world cup but England’s helping hand came back to haunt them; is history repeating itself? In T20 world cup in 2009; Pakistan were given a lifeline in the last minute and capitalized it by becoming the world champions.
Semi final between Pakistan and Australia.
This is no secret; Pakistan always plays with two teams, a brilliant cohesive 11s who will rattle the best of the best and self-destructive juvenile force which will lose to Ireland.
Encouragingly, Pakistan's bowling has returned to form in the last two games and they did well to contain good teams. Even more impressive, the fielding has become helpful. Shahid Afridi is finally thinking with his heart and impulses; a more natural method for his captaincy. He also has found form and is leading from the front with both the ball and the bat.
Pakistan will have to not only show up with their best team but they might need 22 players instead of 11. The way Australia is playing Afridi and the co will be clear underdogs but that means they have nothing to lose. Pakistan does have one more x-factor in Hammad Azam and Afridi needs to bring him in. There is no way Hammad can do any worse in bowling or batting than Hafeez. He can be the Inzamam-ul-Haq of this T20 World Cup and play innings of substance like he did in U19WC and like Inzaman did in the only 50 overs world cup Pakistan won.
Question at the end still remains; Can Pakistan defeat Australia? Logic says “not a chance” but Pakistani cricket defies logic and can never be fully written off. Pakistan now has the momentum and the lady luck is clearly backing the underdogs but Miss Luck is going against the mighty Australia who has Mr. Talent on their side. Only the time will tell if Miss Lady Luck overcomes Mr. Talent…just one more day and its all over.
Can Pakistan defeat Australia in T20 world cup semi final
Barred from playing cricket in their own country, constantly embroiled in rows and disciplinary problems, troubled Pakistan have somehow managed to reach the semi-finals of the Twenty20 World Cup.
Shahid Afridi's team even lost the first two of their three matches in the Super Eight stage but still made it into the last four thanks to victory over South Africa on Monday and other results going their way.
Now Pakistan face favourites Australia on Friday with a place in the final up for grabs and an opportunity to defend the title they won last year in England.
The chance of glory comes just weeks after the end of a woeful tour of Australia where the team lost all three tests and five one day internationals.
The Pakistan Cricket Board banned former skipper Younis Khan and Muhammad Yousuf indefinitely and imposed 12-month suspensions and fines on Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved.
Of the current Twenty20 team, skipper Afridi and brothers Kamran and Umar Akmal were all fined.
It is the kind of chaotic situation that would undermine most teams' confidence but Afridi, nicknamed 'Boom Boom' after scoring the fastest one day century in 1996, said they were taking it all in their stride.
Success would bring cheer to the cricket-mad Pakistani population who have been unable to watch their team on home soil since the visiting Sri Lanka team bus was attacked by armed gunmen in Lahore last March.
Three months later, Pakistan won the Twenty20 World Cup in England.
England's cricketers were on fire in yesterday’s game against New Zealand. They had the support of every English cricket fan bundled up with the entire nation of Pakistan. Every child, man and women in Pakistan were glued to their TV cheering for England to win. With the absence of Kevin Pietersen, it seemed a tough task but England delivered a comprehensive win and with it sent New Zealand packing and Pakistan moves on to the semi final.
To keep it short and interesting; England won and in conclusion, New Zealand and South Africa are granted permission to go back to their normal lives.
England has done double to Pakistan; first they defeated Pakistan to kill the defending champion’s hopes to repeat the act again and then by giving Pakistan a lifeline by defeating New Zealand. As ever it is very hard to right off the men in green; their performance against South Africa was nothing short of fairytale. This is the second world cup in a row where Pakistan eliminated South Africa.
Now that Pakistan is moving to the semi final, the streets in Lahore and Karachi were crowded with fans who were holding the English flags along with the flags of Pakistan. This is what happened in 1992 world cup but England’s helping hand came back to haunt them; is history repeating itself? In T20 world cup in 2009; Pakistan were given a lifeline in the last minute and capitalized it by becoming the world champions.
Semi final between Pakistan and Australia.
This is no secret; Pakistan always plays with two teams, a brilliant cohesive 11s who will rattle the best of the best and self-destructive juvenile force which will lose to Ireland.
Encouragingly, Pakistan's bowling has returned to form in the last two games and they did well to contain good teams. Even more impressive, the fielding has become helpful. Shahid Afridi is finally thinking with his heart and impulses; a more natural method for his captaincy. He also has found form and is leading from the front with both the ball and the bat.
Pakistan will have to not only show up with their best team but they might need 22 players instead of 11. The way Australia is playing Afridi and the co will be clear underdogs but that means they have nothing to lose. Pakistan does have one more x-factor in Hammad Azam and Afridi needs to bring him in. There is no way Hammad can do any worse in bowling or batting than Hafeez. He can be the Inzamam-ul-Haq of this T20 World Cup and play innings of substance like he did in U19WC and like Inzaman did in the only 50 overs world cup Pakistan won.
Question at the end still remains; Can Pakistan defeat Australia? Logic says “not a chance” but Pakistani cricket defies logic and can never be fully written off. Pakistan now has the momentum and the lady luck is clearly backing the underdogs but Miss Luck is going against the mighty Australia who has Mr. Talent on their side. Only the time will tell if Miss Lady Luck overcomes Mr. Talent…just one more day and its all over.
Indian T20 bubble burst
Sri Lanka handed India their third early exit in as many showcase ICC events when they recorded a thrilling last-ball five-wicket win, one that was powered by a late flurry of boundaries.
Skipper MS Dhoni may not admit the reality, but everyone knows that India's disastrous performance at the ICC Twenty20 World Cup is linked to the Indian Premier League (IPL).
It happened in England too in 2009 and this time the same story was repeated in the West Indies. After winning the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa, Team India crashed out of the next two World Cups in 2009 and 2010 by losing badly at the Super 8 stages.
If you watch players like Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Murali Vijay playing, their body language will show how much tired and exhausted they are after the IPL stint.
Now it's time for the BCCI to rethink on the IPL strategy. The IPL may entertain the crowd and shower money on the cricketers and board. But it will ruin the Indian cricket. Former cricketers and cricket fans have slammed Dhoni and the selectors for the dismal performance in the West Indies.
Indian cricketers were happy with the huge amount of money they received from the IPL. They were just having a party time in West Indies, visiting the pubs, beaches and enjoying every bit of the time they spent in the Caribbean.
Team India did not even bother to do enough practice. They were so much over-confident about their IPL performance that they did not even play in any warm-up games ahead of the World Cup.
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